Red Star Belgrade will look to seal their spot in the Champions League playoff round as they welcome Lech Poznan to the atmospheric Stadion Rajko Mitic on Tuesday night.
Red Star’s quest to qualify for the Champions League proper for a third consecutive season made the perfect start, as they cruised past Gibraltar minnows the Lincoln Red Imps 6-1 on aggregate.
Vladan Milojevic’s hosts took control of this tie last week, as they went to Poland and secured a 1-3 victory on an evening where our man Gabriel landed a couple of winners.
After securing an eighth successive Serbian SuperLiga crown last season, Vladan Milojevic’s side have also made the perfect start to their title defence, thrashing both Javor Ivanjica (4-0) and OFK Beograd (7-1) in their opening two league outings this season, before defeating Backa Topola 1-0 at the weekend.
After winning the Polish Ekstraklasa for the first time in three years, Lech Poznan made a slow start to the new campaign, losing 1-2 to Legia Warsaw in the Polish Super Cup, before losing their league opener 1-4 at home to Cracovia.
However, since then, Niels Frederiksen’s have gone on to win each of their next four matches in all competitions, including thrashing Icelandic champions Breidablik 8-1 on aggregate in the previous round (7-1 & 0-1) before their first leg defeat to the record Serbian champions last week.
How the bookies view it: Red Star favourites
Red Star Belgrade have been installed as favourites to add to their lead on Tuesday night, with BoyleSports pricing them at just 8/15.
An away success is 4/1 with the same firm, with the draw priced at 3/1.
Head to head: Second competitive clash
This is just the second-ever competitive meeting between these two clubs, with Red Star winning the reverse fixture 1-3 last week.
Players to watch: Duarte to deliver again?
Bruno Duarte has had a fine start to the campaign, firing in five goals already. The Brazilian frontman has scored in all three European ties this term, and is an appealing 15/8 at Unibet to net anytime here.
Predicted line-ups:
Ex-Stoke City and Inter forward Marko Arnautovic will look to come in from the start here, alongside Brazilian Bruno Duarte.
Ex-hoops man Luis Palma will be expected to play behind striker Mikael Ishak, who scored in the first leg.
Red Star Belgrade: Matheus, Seol, Prado, Velkovic, Tiknizyan, Elsnik, Milson, Ivanic, Krunic, Arnautovic, Duarte
Lech Poznan: Mrozek, Pereira, Skrzypczak, Milic, Moutinho, Kozubal, Jagiello, Gholizadeh, Bengtsson, Palma, Ishak
Anything else catch the eye?
Lech Poznan will need to score at least twice in the Serbian capital just to force extra time, and that could lead to an open encounter.
Lech Poznan’s opening seven competitive fixtures this season have averaged a whopping 4.43 goals per game, with Both Teams to Score & Over 2.5 Goals paying out in five (83%) of them (1-2, 1-4, 7-1, 4-3, 1-0, 2-1 & 1-3).
Red Star’s matches in Europe over the past few seasons have been good for goal-backers, with their previous 29 continental clashes averaging an impressive 3.76 goals per game, with Over 2.5 Goals paying out in 23 (79%) of them.
Both Teams to Score & Over 2.5 Goals pays 20/21 at BoyleSports, and that’s my preferred approach here.
GambleAware